Alexei Ponikarovsky

After midnight came and went, hockey’s biggest league is now out of order and NHL stars are free to sign contracts withh Russia’s KHL. Free from their contractual obligations as of now, players can sign with teams overseas (though some leagues, such as Swedish Elitserien (SEL), don’t allow temporary contracts).

Earlier, the KHL announced requirements for players signing temp deals. A single team can sign no more than three players and only one of them can be non-Russian (though teams are not obligated to dress more than five foreigners to games). They don’t count against the salary cap, but they can’t be signed to contracts worth more than the 65% of their NHL deals’ annual value.

Foreign KHL players must meet one of the following criteria:

Play in more than 150 NHL games in the previous three seasons;

Have KHL experience;

Be a Stanley Cup winner or finalist;

Be a winner of one of the NHL’s annual awards;

Play for their national teams on the 2010 Olympics, one of the last two World Champs or one of the last two World Junior Champs.

The important thing to remember here is that the Capitals were going to sign Fleischmann to a one-year deal regardless. You simply do not let a developed asset like a 20-goal scorer walk away for nothing, and avoiding arbitration helps preserve goodwill on both sides. The only important detail was: for how much?

And that seems to be the rub for most: $2.6 million is too much. But is it?